


After Emmett Leaves and Takes the Tent.

by loulou268



Series: Derry Girls - Erin and James - Scenes We Didn't See - Season 1 [5]
Category: Derry Girls
Genre: Derry Girls Season 1, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 16:50:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18595435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loulou268/pseuds/loulou268
Summary: Scenes We Didn't See: After Emmett Leaves and Takes the Tent.Erin feels down and James notices, offering her a chance to talk. They dance with the line of friends and more in the process.





	After Emmett Leaves and Takes the Tent.

The mood of the group changed significantly after Emmett ran off. Michelle was in a combination of despair of her ‘future husband’ leaving and relief as she didn’t find him attractive, but still spoke that they might meet again. Orla didn’t really notice, happily going about her day. Claire shoved her nose in Moby Dick and snapped at anyone who disturbed her. The adults were arguing among themselves, leaving Erin feeling like a sore thumb. They had arrived at the site and supposed to be on holiday, but Erin felt tenser now than when they left. She was moments away from grabbing her hair and yanking it out of her scalp.

“Do you want to sit in the car for a bit?” James appeared by her side, noticing the look on Erin’s face.

“Aye,” she nodded. The pair of them slipped away unnoticed. Granda Joe left the car unlocked. Erin sat in the driver’s seat, leaning forward and resting her hands on the wheel and staring at the speedometer while James leaned back in the passenger side and looked at Erin, noticing any changes that took place in her – good or bad – so he knew how to help her.

“This took a dramatic turn, didn’t it?” James chuckled a little, scratching his head. Erin sighed and nodded.

“Aye,” she said again. James shifted in his seat to turn to face Erin, who still kept her eyes on the speedometer. Her hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles had turned pure white – like daisy petals, or snow, or ivory.

“Wanna talk about it?”

“What is there to say?” Erin shrugged, “an IRA man hide in the boot of the car and really screwed everything up for us. We’ve lost the tent. Ma, Da and Granda are all arguing which has brought everyone left in a good mood down. We came away from Derry for a nice few days of peace and quiet – to pretend it was all normal, that this wasn’t happening, and look what we got!” She huffed, “The problems of living in a civil war.” Erin muttered quietly to herself, but James heard.

“I wish I could make this all go away,” James blurted out. That sentence finally got Erin to turn and meet his gaze. “I wish I could snap my fingers and stop everything – no IRA, no civil war, no fear, everything this thing has brought with it. I wish I could take it all away. I wish I could make it so you have a nice, normal life, where you don’t have to worry about bombs and soldiers on your way to school.” There was a pause as they held each other’s gaze. “I wish I could do more for you than to comfort you.”

“Ye have,” Erin said quietly, voice barely a whisper. If James wasn’t mistaken it almost sounded like her voice wavered from tears. He was right. Erin kept her voice low and quiet and spoke short sentences because she knew that she could burst into tears. The kind words James said to her meant more than anything else. Perhaps because he wasn’t from Derry, heck not even from Ireland, that he saw how bad it was. Erin was born and raised in this mess, so anything that happened – soldiers coming onto the bus on her way to school, bombs on bridges, gunfire at night – it was all normal to her. She had become desensitised to it. James, English James with his upbringing where he had not to worry about even a fraction that she did, saw the true madness of it all.

“Huh?”

“Just being here, noticing I needed someone to talk to, that’s all I need,” Erin said.

Erin threw herself across the space between them, hugging him tightly. James hugged back. He wrapped her in his arms and tightened his grip in an attempt to comfort her. He moved one hand up to stroke her hair, her soft blonde hair which wafted her perfume into his nose. Erin didn’t push him off or slap him for it either, in fact, she tightened her own grip and buried her head further into his shoulder. James hesitantly pressed a kiss onto her temple. It might have been seen in a certain romantic light to anyone passing by, but they were alone, and James and Erin didn’t notice how they were flirting with the line of friends or more than friends. They pulled apart and looked at each other. Erin’s eyes blinked a couple of times, clearing themselves of the few stray tears that gathered. Her hair had fallen in front of her face as she pulled away, so James gently lifted his hand and brushed it behind her ear. They didn’t rush to create more distance between them, they merely stayed in that position and looked at each other for longer. Erin eventually coughed and sniffed before leaning back completely into her own seat. It dawned on her that if Michelle or Orla or Claire came strolling to look for them and saw the two of them in a car, alone, with Erin merely inches away from James face as he brushed her hair away from her eyes, then they would be in for a world of chaos.

“You know that if you ever need anyone,” James said quietly, as though someone could hear them, “to talk, to cry to, to rant to, anything, I’m here for you, Erin,” James placed a hand on her shoulder, “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Thank ye, James,” Erin smiled at him before looking in the rear view mirror and checking she looked presentable before gesturing that they should leave, “the girls might be looking for us.”

“Right…” James nodded. “Don’t want to keep them waiting.”

When they returned to the site, everything had quietened down – well, as much as they could – but, like when they were at Michelle’s, no one had noticed they had even gone, they greeted the pair, not suspecting that the pair had been having a heart-to-heart that brought them closer, that James and Erin had almost crossed a line (but even the two of them weren’t aware of the line they nearly crossed), and they gestured for Erin and James to sit and join them. She and James sat next to each other, side by side, smiling at each other and nodding along to the conversation taking place, although neither of them was really taking part or paying attention.

The air was filled with laughter, and everything seemed normal for a night.


End file.
